ms 



f-3 >iB^ 



Library of Congress. 



Chap. 



Shelf 



E.SZI 



s - — . — p. 

liTTQUNITED STATES OF AMERICA. CX>- 

StSfe 9—167 c-r';-^ 







ANDREW G CURTIN. 



THE LIFE AND SERVICES 



ANDREW G.CURTIN 



AN ADDRESS 



V^ 



A. K. McClure, 



nELI\KRl;D IN THE HOUSE OK REPRESENTATIVES AT HARRISBURG, PA. 
JANUARY 20, 1895. 




CLARENCE M. BUSCH, 

STATE PRINTER OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
1895. 




^S2 7 







RESOI.UTION. 



In the House of Representatives, 

February 4, iSg^. 
Resolved (if the Senate coucur), That ten thousand copies of the 
McClure memorial exercises of Ex-Governor Curtin be printed and 
bound in cloth, five thousand for the use of the House of Representa- 
tives, and three thousand for the use of the Senate, and two thousand 
for the use of the Executive and other Departments. 

A. D. FETTEROLF, 
Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives. 
E. W. SMIIvEY, 
Chief Clerk of the Senate. 

Approved the eleventh day of Februar}', Anno Domini one thou- 
sand eight hundred and ninety-five. 

DANIEL H. HASTINGS. 

I hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of the 
resolution concurred in by the Senate February 6, i8g^, and approved 
by the Governor February //, iSg^. 

A. D. FETTEROLF, 
Chief Clerk of the House of Represejitatives.. 



THE LIFE AND SERVICES 



ANDRHW G. CURTIN 



Hon. Henry F. Walton, Speaker, said: 

We are here to-night to listen to an address on the life 
and public services of Andrew G. Curtin, one of Pennsyl- 
vania's greatest sons. I have been selected to call this 
meeting to order and I do so with great pleasure. I 
have the honor to introduce to you as your permanent 
chairman a gentleman who was a wnrm personal friend 
of Governor Curtin and is n friend and companion of the 
distinguished gentleman who is to address you, Col. 
Alexander K. McClure. 

He is a gentleman who has been in public life for over 
half a century and to-day is the oldest living member of 
the Legislature of Pennsylvania. 

I present to you the Honorable George V. Lawrence, 
of Washington county. 

Mr. Lawrence said : 

"Ladies and Gentlemen: As chairman of the joint 
committee of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
which has charge of the proceedings preliminary to this 
meeting, I am ordered to preside, and I esteem it a very 
great honor. This is a rare assembly convened for a 
most laudable purpose which cannot but meet the ap- 

(5) 



6 The Life and Services of 

proval of e^eiy intelligent and patriotic eitiz.en of the 
State. 

•'It was justl}' anticipated by the jjeople that their rep- 
resentaifves here should take some intelligent and 
proper acrion in reference to the public life a ad services 
of the late ex-Crovernor Andrew G. Curtin. T'ie common 
gratitude of all men approved this, for his name is^ 
revered in every household in the land, and his devotion 
to the soldiers of his native State during th^" war, and 
his patriotic action and defense of the Union is to them 
a living, blooming Amaranth on their pathway through 
life. 

''In looking among those who were competent to ex- 
press to us and to the people a proper estimate of his 
public services and to put in such form of language as 
would tend to perpetuate his fame and carry it to the 
generations who shall follow us, our minds naturally 
turned to that man who above all others was his most 
intimate friend and associate during the eventful period 
of his life, one who understood the motives of his public 
action, and stood nearer to him than any one outside 
his own household. I need not say I allude to Colonel 
A. K. McClure, whom I now j)resent to this large and in- 
telligent assembly of gentlemen and ladies." 

Colonel McCluee said: 

Mr. President, Senators, Representatives, Ladies and 
Gentlemen : 
Heroic epochs are essential to the development and 
preservation of the best civilization in any people. Mon- 
tesquieu, a distinguished writer and historian of the 
last century, said: "Happy the people whose annals are 
blank in history's book." He was in error. Tlie people 
whose annals are unnoted in history achieve nothing for 
the world or for themselves. No advancement in litem- 



Andrew (r. Curtin. 



ture, in art, in statesmanship, in pliilosophy, in heroism, 
or in any other attribute that ennobles mankind, has 
ever been made by a nation whose records lack heroic 

epochs. 

History is full of pointed examples teaching that the 
nation that has outlived lieroism has ever dated its 
decline and fall. After a thousand years of Roman 
greatness the mistress of the world struggled in the 
agonies of death for two centuries, and regardless of its 
matchless record of distinction in every quality of hu- 
man achievement, during the two hundred years of its 
decay it did not produce a single great hero, statesman, 
philosopher, poet, sculptor, or painter. When heroism 
perished in Rome, Rome perished; and the barbarian 
from the Northern forests swarmed upon her hills, van- 
quished her enfeebled legions, reveled in the halls of 
the Caesars, razed her monuments of mastery to the 
earth, and the God of nations seemed to have given over 
the once ruler of empire to "the lines of confusion and 
the stones of emptiness." 

It is true that our more advanced and enlightened 
civilization is unlike the civilization of the great nations 
which ruled the world in olden times. They ruled by 
conquest and grew rich by spoliation. With such peo- 
ple heroism was the vital inspiration of their greatness; 
but when we had reached the noon day of the nineteenth 
(•entury with peace and its victories welcomed as the 
jewels of progress, herioc epochs of different times be- 
came blended with our more beneficent civilization. 

The people of this land exhibited more heroism in 
laying the foundations of our peaceful civilization than 
ever did the armies of Alexander, of Caesar, or of Han- 
nibal. They founded their settlements in the wilder- 
ness, erected their rude homes and churches and relied 



8 The Life and Services of 

upon their Bible and their ritie for the protection of 
themselves and their household goods. For nearh' a 
century after the pale-faced Quaker, Puritan and Cava- 
lier made their homes in the New World we have one 
unbroken record of heroism that was never surpassed 
by any people. Our forefathers were not only heroic in 
battle for their liberties and in defense of their homes 
against the savage, but they were born and schooled 
to heroism, from the mother's lap to the alter, in main- 
taining their faith, in vindicating their government and 
in advancing every attribute of civilization. Of all the 
peoples of the earth the Americans to-day have the 
most heroic ancestry, and they have proved, even after 
generations of peaceful pursuits, that when their faith, 
their homes or their free institutions are threatened, 
heroic epochs spring up spontaneously from the sturdy 
sons of the Republic. 

It was by the development of one of the most heroic 
epochs of human liistor}^ that the noblest government 
of the earth, now enjoyed by 70,000,000 of people, was 
preserved from overthrow by civil war. It was the most 
heroic conflict of any period of the world's history, and 
it was so because the conflict was fraternal. Men born 
to the same great inheritance, worshipping the same 
proud traditions, developing the same great attributes 
of manhood, trained to their opposing convictions by 
the same type of statesmen, pulpits and schools could 
not but be equally heroic in defense of their convictions. 
It was because the North and South were peopled by 
Americans of the same heroic mould that civil war could 
not be averted when great issues, that had been dis- 
cussed for three-quarters of a century, demanded final 
solution and defied the skill of statesmen. 



Andrew G. Gurtin. 9 

Had either section been less lieioic, war might have 
been averted; the sad story of our struggle might have 
been untold; but the period had arrived when manhood 
confronted compromise, and how heroic were both the 
blue and the gray in the bloody drama, is told in the 
deeply crimsoned annals of the conflict. It was the 
great heroic epoch of the century, and it was the second 
grand illustration of the heroism of the American people 
in man's greatest battle for man. 

Heroic Epochs Create Heroes. 

Such opportunities come to all nations, and s\'hen 
they are equal to the heroic epoch that is necessary to 
advance their civilization, the occasion always creates 
great leaders. Abraham Lincoln might have served as 
an average President and retired without exceptional 
fame in the list of our chief magistrates, had not civil 
war called out the marvellous qualities he possessed as 
patriot and statesman. It was the heroic epoch of 1860 
that called him to leadership, that made his name im- 
mortal, and that will make his memory worshipped in 
every clime where liberty has votaries. Grant, Sher- 
man, Sheridan, Meade, Thomas, Hancock and many 
others who attained fame during the rebellion, would 
have lived and died almost unknown but for the heroic 
epoch that called them to their country's service. They 
commanded great armies; and after four years of bloody 
war made Appomattox historic, for it was there deter- 
mined that "government of the people, by the people 
and for the people should not perish from the earth." 

During long weary months and years, involving count- 
less cost and fearful sacrifice, with bereavement shadow- 
ing almost every home, the conflict continued, and the 
American student of to-day who reads the history of 



10 The Life and Services of 

that struggle sees only the records of its victories and 
defeats, but knows little of the heroic efforts which were 
necessary in the State to maintain great armies and to 
uphold the cause of the Union. The Wiu- Governors of 
the North were the source of the military power of the 
nation, and they stand out to-day single over all the 
thousands of brave men, outside of the army, in the lus- 
tre of their achievement in behalf of the assailed Repub- 
lic. 

It was this heroic epoch that called Andrew G. Curtin 
to Avhat proved to be the most responsible civil trust 
held by any man, with the single exception of Abraham 
Lincoln. His State was greatest in peril of all the 
Northern Commonwealths. It was second to but one 
in physical strength; it was second to none in resources 
to maintain free government and in moral power to 
shape the issues of the conflict. Like Abraham Lincoln, 
he was not made the leader to meet civil war, for it was 
not then expected; but the men who made both these 
leaders in the great battle of 1860 builded wiser than 
they knew, and each fultilled his great destiny by 
achievements unexampled in the records of their respec- 
tive positions. 

Curtin and Free Education. 

Forty-one years ago I sat in this Hall with Curtin as 
a member of the convention whose action called him into 
public life. He had been named for the position of Gov- 
ernor himself, but he was young and heartily yielded to 
the Whig sentiment that pointed to the late Governor 
James Pollock as the man to lead the party in the con- 
test. When the campaign was about to be opened Pol- 
lock summoned Curtin to lead his forces ia the severe 
battle in which thev were about to enter and he con- 



Andrew (x. Cnrtin. 11 



ducted it \\itli masterly skill and energy, resulting iu 
the electiuu of Pollock by an overwlielmiug majority. 
When the victory was won but one name was seriously 
thought of to take the chief position in the cabinet of 
the new (xOAernor, and Curtin was called as Secretary 
of the Commonwealth with the universal approval of 
his party. 

While few to-day turn to his record as Secretary of 
the Commonwealth to illustrate the distinguished ser- 
vices he iias given to this State, the thoughtful student 
of our histoi-y will learn that it was under his adminis- 
tration as Secretary of the Commonwealth, that the 
foundations were laid for our present free school sys- 
tem that is now the most liberal and beneficent in the 
world. AMien he entered Pollock's Cabinet onr school 
system was not dignified as a department of the State. 
Its direction was one of the secondary duties of the Sec- 
retary of the Commonwealth, and he was the first in- 
cumbent i)f that office who systematically organized the 
free schools on the broadest basis and with the efficient 
aid of his Deputy Secretary, Henry C. Hickok, opened 
the way for the universal education of the children of 
the State. Later as Governor he was enabled to build 
the grand structure upon the foundations he had laid. 
Next to Thaddeus Stevens, the author of the free school 
law, and to Cxeorge Wolf, the heroic German Governor 
who approved the measure, our grand system of free ed- 
ucation of to-day is more indebted to Andrew G. Curtin 
than to aiiy other of our juiblic men. 

The Heroic Party of 18f>0. 

The year 18()() gave birth to the heroic epoch of our 
century. Few who were enlisted in the cause of 
redeeming the Republic to a nationalized freedom had 



12 Tilt Life and Services of 

any conception of the gravity of tlie is.sue, or tlie violent 
tiiroes through which the cause must triumpli. A new 
Itarty had entered the field of national jtolitics. It A\as 
unlike all i»arties that had confronted the dominant po- 
litical po^\er of the nation since the triumjth of Jeffer- 
son in ISUO. There were vajrious. party organizations 
during tiie sixy years in which Jeft'ersonian Democ- 
racy maintained ascendancy, but they never established 
a national policy, never reversed the rule of the j)arty 
over which they occasionally trium])lied, and all must go 
into history sim])ly as the Opposition, but the national 
contest of 1S5G developed, in crude form but mighty pro- 
portions, the new political faith that was to reach its 
culminating point in 1800. 

It was not a mere o])position; it was a ])arty of convic- 
tion, of aggression, or resolute purpose, and defeat could 
not make it falter nor the temptation of i)ower shatter 
its ranks. It was organized for one great purpose — to 
halt the aggressive encroachments of slavery. Its plat- 
form was f(n-med Avithin the lines of the national c(Uisti- 
tution, and, Avhile revolutionary in its aim, obedience to 
law Avas one of the cardinal features of its faith. At 
no time in the history of political action did any party 
ever display more disinterested deA'otion to its convic- 
tion or more complete regard to the fitness of its chosen 
l(NuUns. The issue rose high above all consfdiu-a- 
tions of die spoilsmen, and in sober, unflinching earnest- 
ness it marshalled its hosts for the mighty conflict that 
revolutionized the ]>olicy of the government that had 
nationalized bondage, and it thus dedicat<Ml a continent 
to fi-eedom. 

Curtin's (Ii'cat P.attle and Yictor-y. 

On the 2:>d and 24th of February, 18()0, 1 again sat in 
this Hall and was an humble participant in one of the 



Andrew (t. turtin. 13 



most important political State Conventions ever held in 
oui' history. The more heroic element of the new party 
that was about to make its great struggle for State and 
national supremacy, had but one candidate in that con- 
vention for Governor, and that man was Andrew G. 
Curtin. Had there been no issue but that of choosing 
a leader for the State contest, he would have been 
chosen without serious opposition; but the contlicts of 
ambition, which are felt in all parties, and which are 
often to be commended as vastly more beueflcial than 
hurtful in obtaining good political results, were disturb- 
ing in that body. It was the ablest convention of the 
kind I have ever seen in Pennsylvania, and from the be- 
ginning through the two days of its session, it was a bat- 
tle of giants; but on the second ballot Curtin was made 
the candidate by a decided majority, although seven 
other names, some of great prominence, were presented 
and earnestly pressed against him. 

Curtin was chosen because of the general belief in 
his pre-eminent fitness for the high trust to be awarded. 
He was regarded as not only the most available as a 
campaigner, but as the best equipped for the successful 
discharge of his public duties, however grave they might 
become. When summoned to the convention to respond 
to its command to take the flag of his party and lead it 
in the conflict, I can recall him distinctly, as if it were 
but yesterday, as he appeared in this forum to declare 
that he would bear the banner of his faith from Lake 
Erie to the Delaware and return it in trium]th if human 
efforts made it possible, but never with dishonor. 

No man ever inspired his followers with greater confi- 
dence and enthusiasm than did Curtin when he stood 
here and acce]>ted the leadership in the pivotal battle 
of the national revolution, for upon his election or de- 



14 Tlie Life and Services of 

feat in October depended the election or defeat of Lin- 
coln in November. He was a perfect Apollo in form and 
feature as be stood before his wildly enthusiastic sup- 
porters, and his brilliant oratory, ever varying from 
sober logic to the keenest invective or resistless humor, 
told how masterful were his qualities for leadership in 
the great struggle. 

The most that the friends of Curtin could say when 
they presented him as a candidate for Governor was 
that the battle was a hopeful one. With great reluct- 
ance I obeyed his command to take the chairmanship of 
the State committee and the direction of the contest. 
There was then but one organized and disciplined politi- 
cal party in existence, and that was the Democracy. 
There were the old Whigs, Americans, Republicans and 
Independents, but there was no cohesion, no organiza- 
tion and no hope of success save by crystallizing all 
these varied and more or less incongruous elements into 
a great party. It was a task of no common magnitude, 
and it would have been beyond the power of the most 
sagacious political management but for the trust and 
enthusiasm inspired by Curtin in his canvass. 

He more than fulfilled his promise to bear the banner 
of his cause into every section of the State. For three 
months he spoke almost daily, at times twice or thrice 
a day, and often when delivering an address he did not 
know until he closed where he was to fill his next ap- 
pointment. Railroads did not then reach every county 
of the State as they do now, but he had no care as to 
his movements, for when his address was finished a 
committee was always wniting to take him in charge. 
So exacting were his laboi-s that all the hundreds of let- 
ters sent to him, save thuse which came from his own 
home, were forwarded unopened to the State committee 
for answer. 



Andrew O. Curtin. 15 



The Uemocrats nominated against him Henry D. Fos- 
ter, one of the ablest and most popular leaders of that 
party, and Pennsylvania has never before or since wit- 
nessed a State political contest that was oO ably con- 
ducted by the opposing leaders, or that enlisted such 
universal interest amongst the people. The result is one 
of the memorable landmarks of the political history of 
the nation. Curtin was chosen Governor by over 32,000 
majority, and his election practically declared Abraham 
Lincoln the next President of the United States. 

The Appalling Issue of Civil War. 

Before Curtin was inaugurated as Governor of the 
State, in January, 1861, evidence of the settled purpose 
of the South to attempt the violent disruption of the 
States was given in many sections. States had for- 
mally seceded from the Union; forts, arsenals, arms 
and custom houses belonging to the government had 
been seized by the authority of the seceding States, and 
civil war seemed inevitable unless the border States 
could be held to their allegiance. Never before in the 
history of our statesmanship did suck momentous prob- 
lems call for solution, and Pennsylvania being the most 
important of all the Northern States, in view of her 
Southern border and the moral and physical power of 
the Commonwealth, was looked to from ever} section of 
the country, both North and South, with intensest anx- 
iety. To have faltered in the faith of the people who 
had called the new party to power, would have 
made rebellion only the more defiant; to have answered 
madness in passion would have weakened every friend 
of the Union in the South and probably decided the des- 
tiny of many against the maintenance of the Republic. 

President-elect Lincoln could not be inaugurated for 



IG Tlie Life and Services of 

nearly three iiiunths. and no declaiation eould eome 
from tlie National Government to guide the States in de- 
claring- their relations to each other and to the Republic 
There was no precedent in all onr history to dictate the 
utterances of the man who was to speak not only for the 
most important Northern Commonwealth, but whose de- 
liverance w(nild be accepted as defining the attitude of 
the entire loyal North on the issue of war or peace. 
The men of to-day who believe that they have to grapple 
with great problems of statesmanship know^ nothing of 
the fearful responsibilities which had to be assumed in 
defining the position of Pennsylvania at the threshold of 
civil strife. 

Governor Curtin came to this capital not to receive the 
ovations of welcome to a conqueror, although his inaugu- 
ration was a most imposing ceremony; but he came pro- 
foundly impressed with the common peril to his State 
and country, and gave his efforts solely to wield the 
power of his great State for the preservation of peace, 
if peace could be maintained with honor, and to prepare 
for war if rebellion would accept no other arbitrament. 
His inaugural address, carefully prepared by himself in 
his mountain home, was an easy task on all the ordinary 
political issues, but he summoned the most intelligent 
and considerate counsels and gave almost ceaseless la- 
bors for several days and nights, to the declaration of 
the position of Pennsylvania on the then threatened re- 
bellion of the South. How wisely he performed that 
duty is told in the fact that throughout four years of 
civil war, every attitude he assumed in that address was 
maintained and it now stands fully vindicated alike in 
statesmanship and prophecy. 

I need not detail the arduous and responsible duties 
imposed upon Governor Curtin at the outset of the war. 



Andrew O. Curtiyi. 17 

They are well uuderstood by this iutelligeiit audience. 
The annals of our history tell how the State credit was 
maintained, how every (juota of troops called for was 
promptly tilled, how the soldiers were cared for, how the 
sick were ministered to. and the dying brought home for 
sepulchre, and all under the inspiration of Governor Cur- 
tin's liberal and patriotic policy. 

Curtin's Great Struggle of 18G3. 

When his first term was about to close he gave the 
highest evidence of his unselfish devotion to the great 
conflict in which the life of the nation trembled. The 
ceaseless exactions of his otticial duties had left him 
broken in health, but he never ceased in the perform- 
ance of his great work. I was present when to several 
trusted friends he declared it the duty of his party to 
select General William P.. Franklin, a gallant Pennsyl- 
vania soldier and a Democrat, as a candidate of the ioyal 
people of every political faith to succeed him in the.^^ 
Gubernatorial chair. 

He did this when he knew that his renomination 
would be uearly or quite unanimous if he were willing to 
accept it, but he believed that individual ambition 
should ever yield to the public welfare, and he sought 
thus to unify all political parties in our State in support 
of the war, and weaken the hopes of the insurgents by 
the great State of Pennsylvania having effaced party 
lines to sustain the Union of our fathers. In this rec- 
ommendation to unite the whole loyal people of the State 
on General Franklin for Governor the friends of Curtin 
heartily acquiesced, and I simply vindicate the truth of 
history when I say that had General Franklin been 
nominated on a war platform by his own party, that 
nominated its candidate in this forum on the 17th of 

2 



18 llie Life and iServices of 

Juue, 18G3, he would have been enthusiastically accepted 
by the Republican organization and elected by practi- 
cally a unanimous vote. There were political leaders 
of that day in both parties, and they dominated the 
party opposed to Governor Curtin, who did not believe 
that the interests of an imperilled countr}' were para- 
mount, and they suffered defeat as they deserved. 

The Republican convention to nominate Governor Cur- 
tin's successor met in Pittsburgh on the 5th of August, 
nearly two months after the action of his political op- 
ponents. He felt that in justice to himself and to his 
family he should not be a candidate for re-election, and 
under any circumstances not involving the existence of 
free government, his declination would have been per- 
emptory. He felt, as did many of his closest friends, 
that the care and labors of another campaign would be 
a sacrifice of his life to public duty. 

If he had simpl}^ desired political honors they were 
freely proffered to him. On the 13th of April of that 
year, I bore to him from President Lincoln an autograph 
letter voluntarily tendering him a first class foreign 
Mission at the expiration of his Gubernatorial term, if 
he were willing to accept it. That would have been an 
inviting compliment for ©ne who sought only political 
advancement, and it promised rest for the weary and 
broken Governor; but when it was announced that he 
had been tendered a Mission, and that he would proba- 
bly withdraw from the Gubernatorial contest, the re- 
sponse came from half a dozen of the leading counties 
of the State within a w^eek, unanimously instructing for 
his renomination, and demanding that he should be 
made the candidate. 

Curtin's apparent retirement as a candidate in 1863, 
naturally brought into the field men of h'gli position 



Andrew G. Cvrtin. 19 

and attainments who sought the honors he had worn so 
worthily, but before the meeting of the convetnion the 
patriotic sentiment of the State was expressed with 
such emphasis in his favor that he was compelled to 
to bow to it and accept a contest that seemed more than 
doubtful in its issue, and continued responsibilities to 
which he seemed physically unequal. A single ballot 
determined the choice of the convention, and he was 
chosen as a candidate to succeed himself by an over- 
M'helming majority. 

The Soldiers Gave Curtin Victory. 

While the battle of 1860 presented many elements of 
doubt because of the want of unity and organization of 
those who were partially or wholly in accord with the 
party that Curtin represented, the struggle for his re- 
election presented even graver elements of doubt. It 
was one of the most memorable political conflicts in the 
records of the State. More than 75,000 sons of Penn- 
sylvania were in the army and without the right of suf- 
frage. They could not be furloughed to participate in 
the election, and it was not until a year later that our 
amended fundamental law gave them the right of hold- 
ing elections in the field. That four-fifths of these sol- 
diers would have voted for Curtin's re-election could 
they have reached the polls was not doubted, and 
with them practically denied suffrage, and with partisan 
feeling greatly intensified and party lines drawn with 
the utmost severity of political discipline, his defeat 
seemed inevitable at the outset. 

It was not merely a contest for the election of a Gov- 
ernor; it was the one political battle of Pennsylvania 
that was the crucial test of the purpose of her people to 
sustain the administration of Lincoln and the prosecu- 



20 The Life and iServicts of 

tioii of the causeless war that shadowed the hmd uutil 
the Union should be fully restored. It was the most 
sober, the most earnest and the most aggressive politi- 
cal campaign that I can recall in fifty years' observation 
of our political contests. In every section of the State 
the people gathered to hear the orators on the hustings, 
but instead of the boisterous cheers which usually mark 
sucli demonstrations, men listened with bated breath as 
the issues of war were discussed. 

The tall plume of our great leader was seen here and 
there as the battle progressed, but the bright, genial 
face was pinched with care, and the brilliant, inspiring- 
oratory he infused into the contest of three years before 
gave place to the solemn utterances of one wliose life 
seemed to be trembling in the balance as he bowed to 
the command of patriotism. He was saved from defeat 
by loyal men breaking party lines, and b}' the constant 
appeals from the arm}' which came into almost every 
home of the Commonwealth, to re-elect Andrew G. Cur- 
tin, the Soldier's Friend. It w'as the mute eloquence of 
the brave warriors of the Union that came from their 
camp fires and their liospitals that reached the hearts of 
fathers and brothers and sons at home; gentle as the 
dews which jew^el the flowers in the morning and as 
fragrant in every home where there was sorrow for loved 
ones fallen, or anxiety for those who survived the tem- 
pest of battle. There was but a single issue in that con- 
test and the victory was for positive loyalty, as Curtin 
was re-elected by over 15,000 majority. 

Curtin emerged from that desperate but glorious con- 
test utterly broken in health and suffering from serious 
nervous and mental prostration; and soon after his re- 
inauguration he was compelled to leave the Legislature 
in session and journey to sunnier lands to restore his 



Andrew G. C'urtin. 21 



shattered system. I cannot forget the day when many 
devoted friends who had been by his side in sunshine 
and storm, bade him farewell as he sailed from Philadel- 
phia in search of health. None dared to cherish with 
any confidence the hope that he could return alive, but 
his vigorous constitution enabled him to rally with quiet 
and rest, and although he never recovered his full vigor, 
he was enabled to perform his oflficial duties w'ithout in- 
terruption until the close of his term, and to enjoy life 
until he w^as bowed beneath the frosts of nearly four 
score years. 

Two years after he retired from the Gu))ernatorial 
office I was assigned the grateful task of presenting to 
the Republican National Convention of 1808 his name as 
a candidate for Vice President and to cast the united 
vote of Pennsylvania in his favor. Pennsylvania was 
not then a doubtful State, while Indiana was regarded 
as debatable between the great parties, and it was this 
consideration that largely if not wholly dominated the 
action of the convention that chose Schuvler Colfax 
over the War Governor of Pennsylvania. 

One of the earliest ap] (ointments made by President 
Grant after his inauguration was the voluntary nomina- 
tion of Curtin for the Russian Mission. It was entirely 
unsought, but coming as a generous tribute from the 
head of the national government he accepted it, and was 
more cordially welcomed at the court of the Czar than 
were any of his predecessors, as is testified by the beau- 
tiful portrait of the Russian Emperor that adorns the 
now desolate home of Curtin as the gift of the Czar 
himself. 

Immediately after his resignation and return from 
Russia, Curtin was chosen as a delegate-at-large to the 
convention to revise our State Constitution, and he was 



22 The Life and ^Services of 

not only the author of many of the most beneficent re- 
forms introduced into that instrument, but he was one 
of the most useful of the members of the convention in 
hindering many of the more dangerous features sought 
to be engrafted upon it. His ripe exfterience in the gov- 
ernment of Pennsylvania, and his intimate familiarity 
with all the vast and varied interests of our people, 
equipped him to render most conspicuous service in 
shaping the new organic law. 

A few years thereafter he was called to the popular 
branch of Congress by the people of his district, and 
twice re-elected. He had then outlived the conflicts and 
resentments of his many desperate political battles, and 
not only as a Representative but in every social circle 
of Washington, every face smiled at his coming. When 
he retired from Congress his public life closed; his work 
was finished. 

In the Conflicts of Ambition. 

To say that Curtin was ambitious is only to state what 
must be told of every man who has ever been noted in 
achievement. He was at times involved in the bitterest 
conflicts of ambition with men who were struggling for 
the political favors within the gift of his successful 
party. 1 twice witnessed in these Legislative halls con- 
tests of intensest bitterness between him and others 
who were battling for the highest honors of the State. 
The first was as early as 1855; the last in 1867, and both 
left political sores which never healed until the conflicts 
of ambition were ended and time had mellowed the 
gladiators into gentleness. 

I speak of these simply as part of the history of the 
man, not to revive bitter memories. Such contests are 
but the natural outgrowth or our free institutions, and 



Andrew G. Gurtin. 28 



the ambition that calls gifted men to seek the honors of 
free government is in every way commendable. That 
few succeed and many fail is only the inevitable, and 
that merit is often outstripped in the race is the history 
of every political age; but it is none the less the truth 
that greatness can ever assert itself in this land of free- 
dom, and that the highest tributes paid to il; are in the 
appreciation of those who are the sovereign power of 
the government. He and those who struggled with him 
have passed away, and there are none but the kindest 
memories for all. 

He Understood the War. 

One of the first acts of Governor Gurtin after he was 
inaugurated in January, 1861, was to organize a com- 
plete system of investigation into the actual condition 
of the South. The strictest secrecy was observed, and 
I doubt whether any officer of the government at Wash- 
ington had the same accurate and practical information 
as to the real purposes of the seceding States. His 
agents were in every State in the South, some as tele- 
graph operators, others as commercial men and yet oth- 
ers as accidental sojourners, and the informiition that 
came to him from these sources thoroughly convinced 
him that the South was terribly in earnest; that her 
people were substantially united, and that civil war 
was inevitable. This information was known to a very 
narrow circle of those around him, and while he knew 
how fearful the peril was, the general conviction of 
members of the Legislature and of the many visitors 
who came here to discuss the issue, was that those who 
were moving for war in the South were simply bombasts 
and would never meet .the North in deadly conflict. 

A pointed illustration of this sentiment I recall, for 



24 The Life and Services of 

its impress can uever be etfaced. On the iiiglit after the 
siu'reuder of Sumter a caucus of the majority' party of 
the Senate and House was held in this Hall, and I at- 
tended as a member of the Senate. Civil war was upon 
us, and the most fearful problem of our history was pre- 
sented for solution. How should it be met? Speech 
after speech was made in that caucus denouncing the 
Southern agitators as cowards, and one going so far 
as to declare that the wouieu of the North could sweep 
them from the Potomac with their brooms. Advised of 
Curtin's complete and accurate information as to the 
attitude of the South, I a})pealed to the caucus of the 
party that was charged with the responsible action of 
the State, to realize the fact that we were upon the 
threshold of war. and that the South being of our own 
blood and lineage, if plunged into a struggle with the 
Xortli would make one of the bloodiest wars of history. 
For this utterance I was hissed in ev(My part of the hall. 
Alas, how fearfully was that prophesy fuliilled. 

It was this knowledge of Curtin of the inner move- 
ments of the Southern people that made him ever pre- 
pared for every emergency that arose early in the war. 
The first bill to arm the State was ])assed in this Capitol 
in one evening, and its discussion was interrupted in 
both Senate and House by the clerks reading the appall- 
ing dispatches from Charleston, telling of the hot shot 
hurled against the helpless and starving garrison of 
Major Anderson. 

Heroic Action Creating the IVnnsylvania Reserves. 

The next fearful lesson in the war was when the dis- 
loyal eruption in Baltimore severed the telegraphs and 
railways between Washington and the North, and 
stopped all communication for several days. General 



Andrew G. Curtin. 25 



Pattei-sou was here as eoiumander of the deparluieut 
comprising- Pennsylvauia, Maiyhmd and Delaware, and 
Colonel Fitz John Porter was here represen^^ing General 
Scott, the commander-in-chief. With them were a num- 
ber of gentlemen whose services were volunteered to 
aid the Executive and the government to the fullest ex- 
tent of their ability, and when I recall the conferences 
held in the executive chamber during those times, I 
recall the memories of the darkest of all the dark days 
of the history of our State. 

Those around Curtin could advise, but he alone could 
act. It was theirs to counsel, it was his to nssume the 
responsibility, and it was by his final request to General 
Patterson, that could be accepted only as a command, 
that the requisition was made upon him by the com- 
mander of the department for 25,000 additional troops 
to serve for three years or during the war. No advices 
could be had from Washington. For aught we knew the 
victorious army of Beauregard had already besieged or 
captured the capital of the Republic. 

The Governor issued his call for volunteers, and it was 
telegraphed to every part of the State. Long before 
the mails could carry it to the people it was known in 
every centre of population and the patriotic sons of the 
State were volunteering by thousands. It was the most 
spontaneous overflow^ of patriotic purpose that I have 
ever witnessed, or indeed have ever read of. As soon as 
communication could be had with Washington the call 
for troops and the action of the Governor were oflicially 
transmitted, and the first answer that came revoked the 
order for the troops and refused to accept them. 

When that order was received several thousand volun- 
teers were already in camp and every train that entered 
Uie capital was crowded with others who were hurrying 



26 The Life and tServices of 

to defend their country's Hag. To disband them would 
have been to cliill the patriotism of the State, to expose 
its borders to spoliation and to confess that the Execu- 
tive did not comprehend the magnitude of the conflict. 
He summoned tlie Legislature in extraordinary session 
and in the boldest and one of the most dignified mes- 
sages that ever came from a Northern Executive, he pre- 
sented the perils to the State and nation and called upon 
this great Commonwealth to do for the Republic what 
the Republic was unwilling to do for itself. 

The Legislature promptly responded by providing for 
a loan of |8,000,000 and the organization of fifteen regi- 
ments of infantry, with artillery and cavalry, to be 
known as the Pennsylvania Reserves. They were mus- 
tered into the service of the State, but subject to the call 
of the national government at any time that an addi- 
tional quota was to be filled. There was a sad sequel 
in the early vindication of the wisdom of our heroic Gov- 
ernor. Two of the regiments were called to the Mary- 
land border soon after they had been organized, and 
when the bloody disaster at Bull Run appalled the coun- 
try, the national authorities which had peremptorily 
refused to accept these regiments, crowded the wires 
with the most earnest telegrams begging lo have the 
Pennsylvania Reserves hastened to Washington; and on 
the next morning after the retreat of McDowell's shat- 
tered and( demoralized forces into the Arlington in- 
trenchments, was heard the step of the gallant Pennsyl- 
vania Reserves marching through the streets of the im- 
periled capital. When the first regiment arrived at 
Washington it was met by President Lincoln in person 
and his greeting was "God bless Pennsylvania ; God 
bless her loyal Governor." 

In the reorganization of the army after that defeat, the 
Pennsylvania troops, by reason of the organized and 



Andrev: G. Curtin. 27 



drilled Reserve corps, became the nucleus of military 
discipline and efficiency, and from Drainsville, where it 
won the first victory of the Army of the Potomac, until 
the insurgents' flag was furled at Appomattox, the Re- 
serves wrote their records of valor on every battle-field. 
In this, as in every great emergency during the war, 
Curtin was heroic. 

The Momentous Altoona Conference. 

One of the important events of the war in which Gov- 
ernor Curtin played a most conspicuous part is little 
known in history, and but imperfectly known even by 
those who observed the great movements which have 
transpired. I refer to the Altoona conference of the 
Governors of the North. The reader of history will 
simply note the fact that the Governors of the loyal 
States met there, conferred, issued an address, presented 
it to President Lincoln, and called upon him to make 
requisition upon their respective States for fresh troops 
to strengthen our armies for victory; but who is there 
to-day, save a very few yet surviving, who knew the 
inner story of that conference? Who can tell why that 
conference was held? 

The Army of the Potomac had been defeated in the 
seven days' battles in front of Richmond, and Pope had 
met with disaster on the plains of Manassas and had 
been driven into the defenses of Washington. Volun- 
teering had ceased; no national conscription law was 
then in existence, and there was distress bordering on 
despair in the hearts of the loyal people of the North. 
Governor Curtin was in New York an invalid in the 
care of his physician and surgeon, and forbidden to leave 
his sick room, or to consider official affairs. Secretary 
Seward was in New York apparently paralyzed by the 



28 The Life and Services of 

darkness that enveloped the country. Governor Ciirtiu, 
forgetting his illness and the admonitions of his physi- 
cians, accepted Seward's invitation to a conference, and 
Seward repeated to him only what he well knew before, 
that the depressed condition of the loyal people who 
supported the government was such that the President 
believed it to be perilous to issue a call for additional 
troops, which all knew were absolutely' necessary to 
prosecute the war successfully. 

It was at this conference that Curtin suggested a meet- 
ing of the loyal Governors at an early day, and that they, 
speaking for their States, should ask the President to 
issue a call for 300,000 men, with the assurance that the 
States would promptly respond to it. The despairing 
Secretary of State readily grasped so hopeful a proposi- 
tion, and before they separated dispatches were sent to, 
and received from, nearly every Governor of the North, 
all of whom heartily joined in the movement. The con- 
ference was fixed at Altoona and was fully attended, and 
it was that conference and its heroic and patriotic utter- 
ance, penned bj' Andrew G. Curtin and John A. Andrew 
of Massachusetts, that inspired the nation afresh, that 
promptly filled up the shattered ranks of the armies, 
and thus saved the Republic. 

In a conversation with the ex-Vice President of the 
Southern Confederacy some years after the war he told 
me that the severest blow the South received in the early 
part of the conflict was the Altoona conference of the 
Northern Governors that rallied the patriotic people to 
the support of their armies when the South believed 
they had won the decisive battles of the war. The au- 
thor of that conference, the hero of that achievement, 
was Andrew G. Curtin. 



Andrew G. Curtin. 29 



Heroic in War and in Peace. 

Nor A\as lie merely heroic in war; he was equally he- 
roic in peace. I saw him when the thunders of the 
shotted guns of rebellion across in the Cumberland val- 
ley reverberated around this capital, and when the arch- 
ives of the State were gathered and loaded for flight, 
and I saw him day and night when the legions of Lee 
made the fate of battle tremble in the balance during 
the three bloody days at Gettysburg, but he ever rose in 
ills appreciation of duty as perils rose before him. 

He was ever at the post of duty, ever faithful, ever 
wise and ever heroic, and when the news of Lee's surren- 
der was flashed to the capital, and the armies of the re- 
bellion furled their flags and sheathed their swords, from 
that day until the day of his death he sought to bind the 
bruised hearts of war and to restore the North and 
South to union and fellowship. All brave men are he- 
roic in war; all brave men are not heroic in peace, and 
I regard his efforts for reconcilliation after the work of 
the reapers in the harvest of death had ended, as one of 
the brightest of all the bright stars in his crown. 

Governor Curtin was not only heroic in war and he- 
roic in peace, but he stands out single over all the rulers 
of the States or of the nation in his heroic humanity. 
He was the first of the loyal Governors to organize 
commissions to minister to the sick, to care for the 
wounded and to bring every son of Pennsylvania who 
had fallen in the conflict, home to his sorrowing friends 
for sepulchre. There was not a Pennsylvania command, 
even in the most distant part of the South, that did not 
feel the kind ministrations of the Governor of his State, 
and never did a letter come to him from a soldier in the 
ranks, however humble or however unreasonable its pur- 
port, that was not answered from the Executive office. 



30 The Life and Services of 

He was called the Soldier's Friend, and the title was 
no invention of the demagogue. It was fashioned in the 
spontaneous gratitude of our gallant warriors, who 
knew that when the}^ entered battle the wounded would 
be cared for and the dead would be brought back to be 
entombed with their loved ones wlio had gone before, 
I have from time to time carefulh^ examined the records 
of the different Northern States in their care of the sol- 
diers during the war, and there is not one that ap- 
proaches the record written by Governor Curtin, nor is 
there one that did not follow him instead of leading in 
the beneficent work. He was foremost and master of 
that achievement, and there is not a Pennsjivania sol- 
dier now living in any part of the Union who does not 
lisp with reverence the name of Andrew G. Curtin as 
the Soldier's Friend. 

The Soldiers' Orphans' Schools. 

Governor Curtin's nature was heroically 'Sympathetic. 
He was the author of the Soldiers' Orphans' Schools of 
Pennsylvania, the grandest benefaction in the history 
of any State or nation. It was on a bleak Thanksgiving 
Day that he was met upon the streets of Harrisburg by 
two ill-clad children begging for bread, and to their ap- 
peal was added, "Father was killed in the war." It was 
the eloquence of those hapless, helpless children that 
reared the great structure of philanthropy known as the 
Soldiers' Orphans' Schools of our State. 

He had a desperate battle to secure the necessary leg- 
islation. With all his efforts the first bill was defeated, 
but he did not despair of success. At a latei period he 
gathered a number of the orphans of soldiers, brought 
them to Harrisburg, entertained all who could find a 
place in the Executive Mansion and brougfht them into 



Andrew 0. Cnrtin. 31 



this hall to have their bright young faces, clouded by 
the sorrow of bereavement, plead their own cause. The 
result was the prompt passage of the bill, and almost 
before the ink of the certification of the Speakers was 
dry, it had the approval of the Governor. 

Who can measure such a benefaction? We know 
where it began, and what is has accomplished during the 
thirty years that it has been fulfilling its purpose, but 
who can calculate its beneficence as generation after 
generation shall come to tell the story of their fathers 
who were made the wards of the Commonwealth when 
their homes were desolated by the sacrifices of war? 
Not only those who have been thus educated and cared 
for by the bounty of the State, but their childien testify 
to the magnitude and grandeur of this unexampled phil- 
anthropy, as will their children's children foi' ages. It 
was wholly the creation of Andrew G. Curtin, and it will 
stand in history as one of the most heroic of his public 
acts. 

Popular Api»reciation of Curtin. 

Governor Curtin's heroism in every line of public duty, 
and in every illustration of the noblest characteristics 
of a ruler, called out the most heroic affections of the 
people of his State. We thoughtlessly speak of men 
as unappreciated because others have won and worn 
what are called higher political honors, but mere politi- 
cal position is not the true standard of individual worth 
or popular appreciation. It is the countless ways in 
which the love of the people expresses itself and makes 
it enduring, that tell the story of popular affection for 
public men. If you will turn to the records of your own 
Legislature you will find tributes paid to Curtin that are 
entirelv exceptional in the history of our State. On the 



'S2 The Life and Services of 

12th of April, 18G6, when the last Legislature that 
served under his six years of executive dutj was about 
to close, it made a record that is more expressive and 
quite as enduring as the monuments which will mark his 
tomb and grace our Capitol Hill. 

A preamble and resolutions declaring that the Legis- 
lature could not "contemplate his course during the re- 
cent struggle of our country without admiration of the 
patriotism which made him one of the earliest, foremost 
and most constant of the supporters of the government, 
and without commendation of the spirit which prompted 
him, with an untiring energy and with the sacrifice of 
personal repose and health, to give to the soldier in the 
field and in the hospital and to the cause for which the 
soldier fell and died the fullest sympathy and aid," and 
thanking him because "he has tempered dignity Avith 
kindness and won the high respect and confidence of the 
people," were proposed in the popular branch by Mr. 
Ruddiman, the Republican leader of the body, and 
passed by a vote of ninety-seven recorded ayes, being the 
entire membership but three, who were unavoidably ab- 
sent. On the same day Senator Wallace, the Democratic 
leader of that body, moved the adoption of the resolu- 
tions, and the name of every Senator was recorded in 
favor of their passage. 

Again on the 6th of April, 1869, when he had been ap- 
pointed to Minister of Russia, a Legislature with which 
he had never had official relation, adopted a resolution 
thanking the President of the United States for the com- 
pliment ])aid to Curtin and to Pennsylvania, and express- 
ing the earnest wishes of the Legislators for his restora- 
tion to health, and it was passed by an absolutely unan- 
imous vote in both Senate and House. No Governor of 
Pennsylvania, or other public servant either before or 



Andrew G. Curtin. 33 



since, ever received such tributes from those who admit- 
tedly represented the whole people of the State in their 
appreciation of our great War Governor. 

Wherever he went through the Commonwealth, he 
he was ever greeted with a heartiness and enthusiasm 
that untold numbers have sought to win, but only he at- 
tained. He was alike the hero of his people whether in 
power or without sceptre, and every form of affectionate 
expression that could be given to a public man came like 
the perpetual bloom and fragrance of flowers upon his 
pathway. 

Love's Tribute at Curtin's Tomb. 

I have witnessed great pomp and ceremony when men 
of distinction have filled their measured days and passed 
to the City of the Silent, but never was such an expres- 
sive pageant in our State as that presented when An- 
drew G. Curtin was borne to the grave. There were 
soldiers and associations in ranks to swell the marching 
column in its solemn tread, but they were forgotten in 
the oppressive grief that told its sad story on every face, 
young and old, high and low. The very mountains which 
surround his desolated home seemed clad iu the habila- 
ments of woe, and the sturdy sons of toil who gather 
golden harvests in the valleys or wrest wealth from 
the hillsides were there to mingle with every condition 
and class in the common bereavement that fell upon the 
community. Children who stood upon 1 he waysid i and 
silently and sadly noted the grief that none escape, will 
remember to the latest periods of their lives the out- 
pouring of the love of the people of their noblest hero; 
and with them were those wiio brought the richest jew- 
els of human lamentation as the children of sorow and 
want shed their tears upon his tomb. 
3 



34 The Life and Services of 

He had disappointment; wlio has escaped them? They 
are the common inheritance of great and small from 
birth to death, and they are often exquisite in the chas- 
tening of heroic qualities and iu strengthening men for 
their best achievements. There are many who are not 
great in prosperity, but there are a few who are great in 
adversity. It is only the greatest and most heroic who 
meet the shock of disappointments with philosophy and 
start afresh in the battles of life, and Curtiu was as he- 
roic in disappointments as he Avas in triumph. Neither 
success nor failure could diminish the lustre of his 
and chivalrous to those who met him in tlie great strug- 
gles of his career. 

Did he err? Yes; let the unerring accuse him. If 
only the sinless cast stones in political and personal con- 
flict its pathway would not be so thickly strewn with 
mangled reputations. He was thoroughly human or he 
would not have been great. It is the inexorable decree 
of infinite wisdom that the judgment of man shall be 
fallible and that he must stumble in error, and it is best 
that he should be so or it would not be thus ordained. 
Man is human and fallible to teach all that only God is 
God. But who of our public men, tempted and tried as 
was Curtin, left less of public error to be forgotten? 
There is not a citizen of Pennsylvania, whose annals 
have been so heroic by the record of Andrew G. Curtin, 
that would not join me to-night in saying of him that 
"the grave buries every error, covers every defect, ex- 
tinguishes every resentment, and from its peaceful 
bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollec- 
tions." 

A Blessed Life. 

The Thracians brought tears to the birth couch and 
flowers to the tomb. Thev held that life was most 



Andreiv (r. Curtin. 35 



blessed iu its ending, but in that age tlieie were few 
aiastei's and many bondmen, and life was sorrowful in 
Its burdens. In our liappier and better civilization gar- 
lands come to the cradle and to the grave, and life may 
be blessed alike in its morning, its noonday and its even- 
ing time. The great life that illumines its pathway by 
achievement, however richly blessed in its career, is 
ever richly blessed wlien its work is finished. 

I stood by the side of my fallen chief when his eyes 
were lustreless and his strong, beautiful features cold in 
death, and I could not but feel, even in the sorrow that 
bowed every heart, that a great heroic life was blessed 
in its ending when its task was fulfilled. He bore upon 
his breast the shield that inspired and protected him 
in his grandest efforts. It was the insignia of the Loyal 
Legion, and its motto of "Lex Regit; Arma Tuenter" — 
Law rules; arms defend — had ever been his guiding star 
in his l.ibors and sacrifices for the preservation of free 
government. In sweetly mellowed gentleness he had 
waited for the inexorable messenger, and wlien it came 
he was in readiness. Nature, kind mother of us all, in 
voice so soft that "there's nothing lives twixt it and si- 
lence." called to the heroic but weary child. The shad- 
ows of night have gathered; come to rest. Patriot, 
statesman, philanthro])ist, hero, friend; for a few swiftly 
fleeting davs, farewell. 



Hon. Galusha A. Grow, who occupied a seat on the 
l)latform during Colonel Mc( "lure's address, in response 
to repeated calls at its close by the audience, spoke for 
a few minutes, recalling some of the stirring events of 
("urtin's administration. 



